There’s a new Godzilla movie coming out next summer. Hey, don’t laugh. Everyone seemed to really like the footage they showed at San Diego Comic-Con this year. Here’s the first official trailer:
After the world seemed divided on whether or not to embrace robots vs. monsters this summer (i.e., Pacific Rim), the prospect of a new big-budget American Godzilla movie takes on a whole new level of intrigue. To some degree, Pacific Rim has already done the heavy-lifting, making sure mainstream audiences have now at least heard the word kaiju (the Japanese word for “strange creature”) a couple of times rather recently. Plus, armed with a $190 million budget director Guillermo del Toro was able to give us astonishingly animated and fully realized giant monsters (kaiju) fighting giant robots. To some degree, it was like Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla just with far more variation and much, much, much better visuals. However, Pacific Rim was a domestic embarrassment for the studio (just barely crossing the $100 million mark) while triumphantly cleaning up overseas to the tune of an international gross of $305 million and worldwide gross of $407.6 million. It actually made more in China ($111 million) than it did anywhere else.
Oddly enough, the same people behind Pacific Rim are bringing us this new Godzilla film, specifically Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures. Whereas Pacific Rim was an original creation sold on the one-line appeal of “monsters vs. robots” and director Guillermo del Toro’s considerable cult credibility Godzilla is relying far more upon brand recognition and a cast full of slightly more recognizable figures, especially Bryan “Walter White” Cranston. David Strathairn also stars in the film and provides the trailer’s opening narration
Heard but not seen in the trailer is Strathairn, who Alphas fans would be forgiven for making instant “Dr. Lee Rosen is the worst psychiatrist because…” jokes
This first trailer is surprisingly quiet, showcasing an extended sequence involving military figures falling from a plane before giving us brief glimpses of the major cast members (Bryan Cranston, Aaron Johnson, Elisabeth Olsen) in various states of worry. This lack of any kind of orchestral score dictating to us how we should be reacting makes the pay-off of a close-up of Godzilla’s face as it bellows out that signature roar all the more chilling (or fist-pump-in-the-air inducing, depending on your personal take on Godzilla).
Here’s the official plot synopsis:
“An epic rebirth to Toho’s iconic Godzilla, this spectacular adventure, from Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures, pits the world’s most famous monster against malevolent creatures who, bolstered by humanity’s scientific arrogance, threaten our very existence.”
We don’t actually get any sense of this Godzilla vs. “malevolent creatures” vibe implied by the synopsis. However, this would seem to fall more in line with latter depictions of Godzilla in which the creature assists humanity by eliminating a common threat but is not, in the end, an ally to mankind or an agent of good or evil. Plus, the bit about “humanity’s scientific arrogance” somewhat speaks to the classical reading of Godzilla as functioning as a metaphor for Japan’s post-WWII worries over both the effects of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as the potential for imminent future destruction.
Of course, Godzilla is most known for the seemingly endless parade of poorly dubbed Japanese films featuring men in obvious rubber suits smashing 1/50 scale sets while the camera cuts away to a scurrying crowd which always has one person who looks up at the sky and bellows, “Oh, no! Look, it’s Godzilla!” Except the poor dubbing means it’s entirely obvious the actor never came close to saying any one of those words since he was actually speaking in Japanese. There have been nearly 30 Godzilla movies since 1954. I have actually seen quite a few of them, and many of them are indeed awful. However, not all of them; I would whole-heatedly recommend the at-times goofy but deceptively moving Son of Godzilla. The last American version was the poorly received 1998 Godzilla film that forced us to try and accept Matthew “Ferris Bueller” Broderick as an action star.
Godzilla and Matthew Broderick from the 1998 “Godzilla.”
You could argue that Cloverfield was basically an unofficial Godzilla movie, just with a “man on the street” approach to story and depiction of the monster. Pacific Rim also shares some elements. Will this new Godzilla emerge superior to all those its franchise has inspired over the years? Director Gareth Edwards handled this genre beautifully in his indie film Monsters, which he also did the special effects for on a minimal budget using off the shelf technology. The literal monsters are almost inconsequential to that film’s story, as it takes place in a time far enough beyond a monster invasion that humans have completely normalized the experience and know how to plan their lives around which areas of Earth are now uninhabitable. It is pretty much Edwards only major work to date, but it indicates he will not lose sight of the importance of character in Godzilla.
It’s also worth noting that one of the downfalls of the 1998 Godzilla was an advertising campaign which used billboards in New York City to emphasize how tall their Godzilla would be in real life. Then when we got a look at Godzilla in the movie the results were less than satisfying. Cloverfield also purposefully held back on showing their monster in the advertising. This trailer only gives us a glimpse of the new Godzilla until the very end, when that giant monsters bellows out and looks updated enough to seem fresh but faithful enough to still register as being Godzilla. If I’m honest, the nostalgia from having grown up watching lots of Godzilla movies makes me an easy target for that last moment with Godzilla’s scream. However, beyond mere nostalgia this is an effective trailer. Let’s see if I’m still smiling about it when the movie actually comes out.
Godzilla is scheduled to come out May 16, 2014.